Physical exercise is widely recognized as an important component of maintaining physical fitness and overall health. One type of physical exercise, often referred to as resistance training, uses the resistance to muscular contraction to build the strength, anaerobic endurance and size of skeletal muscles. Various types of exercise devices have been developed to provide such resistance for use in resistance training.
According to one type of resistance exercise device, a user grabs a handle connected to a cable and an opposing resistance force is applied to the cable to resist the user pulling the cable. Such resistance exercise devices often allow the user to adjust the opposing resistance force that is applied against the cable. In such devices, the resistance force is often the same as the retraction force used to cause the cable to retract into the exercise device. Thus, changing the resistance force also results in a corresponding change in the retraction force used to retract the cable. The higher retraction forces resulting from higher resistance forces may cause an undesirable jerking action when using the exercise device.